MyRedBag – Dinner Solved. Shopping Easy.

I grew up in an Italian family that believed the experience surrounding food should be much more than the final act of eating. Deciding what to cook, everyone contributing ingredients, and the cooking itself were social experiences that brought my family and friends closer, and made the meal itself that much more enjoyable.

But since going out into the world myself, often my cooking aspirations are crushed by my busy schedule, and the dread of all the work needed before the oven even turns on. I now live very far from family and many of my close friends. The food experience I once cherished has all but vanished.

That is why I was excited to try the new free app MyRedBag (available on the App Store https://appsto.re/us/sREH5.i). MyRedBag promises to make food and grocery a “fun, rewarding, and social experience.” So, does it deliver you ask? The answer is resoundingly, yes!

I found the interface to be stylish, smooth, and very intuitive. The home screen displays a banner with four categories: Social, Recipes, Lists, and Stores. Naturally I checked out the Social tab first. Here you’re taken to a feed that displays what recipes people are sharing, making and favoriting (note: create an account, it makes the experience complete). I scrolled down the feed and found a margarita grilled shrimp recipe that looked amazing. I tapped the mouth-watering picture, and went straight into the recipe. You can tell they really thought out the recipe display – not to mention making it easy to scale servings and export ingredients into an interactive shopping list. I also loved how the views turned like a book and reminded me of physical cookbooks.

After only a few minutes I easily discovered recipes I was interested in, filled out my meal plan for the week, and imported needed ingredients into shopping lists.

On the lists front you can have multiple shopping lists and name them whatever you’d like. Each list is interactive, and allows you to check items off as you shop. In addition to importing ingredients you can also scan and type addition items (toothpaste, paper towels – yep need those too). I now have recipes I want to make and a list of ingredients and other products I need. I’m ready for the store!

So what else can MyRedBag do? In addition to sharing recipes you can also share your lists to make your shopping experience easy. My wife and I divide and conquer. I’ve also heard they are working on capabilities to send orders directly to stores. Other key features include the ability to import recipes from external sites or create your own!

In this short time I realized how efficient this platform is. I already invited several friends to download MyRedBag. I’m excited to continue using MyRedBag to encourage myself to cook more, and I’m even more excited to see the social and store aspects blossom as more users discover this food-lover’s best friend.

The bottom line: MyRedBag is the best recipe app on the market, they combined social features and recipe content in an innovative way that works and that I can take directly to store.